Recreational vehicles, fifth wheel and cargo trailers often have storage and sleep platforms that can be manually raised and lowered from a stowed position for use as a bed or storage area within their interior space. While these platforms are popular and have convenient features, these platforms heretofore suffered from a variety of operational and structural issues. In particular, manually operated platforms that employ various slides, linkages and cables and using piston props to counterbalance the weight of the decks often bind when the decks are not moved in a particular manner or order.
The platform assembly of this invention provides a platform deck that manually deploys between raised and lowered positions and ensures a specific order of operation when moving the deck between the raised and lowered positions. The platform assembly includes a deck, which rides on a roller disposed within upright slide rails mounted to opposed interior walls of the trailer, vehicle or structure. The deck is supported by a horizontal side member in the lowered position and a support bracket and two sets of piston props in the raised position. The platform assembly uses a pair of stop pins that ride within a vertical channel in the upright slide rails and seat within notches formed in the rail channels. The stop pin and the configuration of notches and the edges of the rail channel help ensure smooth operation, as well as the proper order of operation when raising and lowering the deck.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.